MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE ROGUE NATION looks like it is going to be a worthy successor to Brad Bird's visually stunning GHOST PROTOCOL, but how Christopher McQuarrie and Tom Cruise plan to top the stunts in that film seemed to be answered by Cruise hanging off of an airplane in the first trailer for the summer blockbuster. But, it turns out there may be an even more impressive sequence coming that was not hinted at in the footage we have seen thus far.
In an interview with Yahoo, Tom Cruise shed some light on performing his own stunts for the airplane scene as well as the motorcycle chase, both of which he described as very real and very scary. But, he also gave some info on an underwater sequence filmed for MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE ROGUE NATION that sounds like it is going to be something special.
“We have something I’ve always wanted to do: an underwater sequence without cuts. The kind of training I had to do for that was pretty intense. I’ve done a lot of underwater scenes but I’ve never done one [like this] that will get the audience to lean forward and have a visceral reaction.”
A single take action set-piece is hard enough to execute on land, but underwater? Tom Cruise clearly was actually filming this scene himself and with no cuts that had to have made the studio nervous. Whether there are edits concealed via special means like BIRDMAN is unknown, but Cruise said no cuts so I have to believe he means a single long take.
McQuarrie and Cruise also explain that there are call backs to all four of the previous MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE films along with some easter eggs for fans on the lookout. All I know is that between the promise of this underwater sequence and that airplane shot, I am completely sold on this movie.
MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE ROGUE NATION opens on July 31st.